Romantic Comedy aka Rom-Com.

This week’s screening was Sleepless in Seattle directed by Nora Ephron, starring Tom Hanks, whom is one of my favourite actors. Watching it for the first time, I personally enjoyed it. Having your typical Classical Hollywood narrative, 3 act structure, a situation, a problem and a resolution, with comical elements such as Tom Hanks’ use of sarcasm throughout the film. One in particular I recall is when he was on a date with another lady (I think it was Victoria), and he got a phone call from his son, Jonah, and at that point in the film, he seemed pretty annoyed with Jonah. When he got back to the table with Victoria, he went on to ask her if she has kids, and her respond was no, and he went to ask her “Do you wanna have mine?”. That line struck my humour bone as it had a pun in it while being sarcastic. Usually people would ask celebrities to have their kids as a way of saying they would like to sleep with them, and this seems like a link being placed in the context that their on a first date and he was getting to know her, but at the same time it was him finding a way to vend his annoyance of his child, putting his son up for grabs.

Rom-com has entertained viewers with cliched plot lines, dialogue and “happily ever after” endings. But what keeps us coming back for more ,despite knowing the end of the story where the 2 were destined to be together? It is the use of repetition and variation the filmmakers employ in their films to draw viewers. We as the audience want to see the struggles the protagonist(s) go through, just to be together with their other half. The stronger the filmmaker can “trick” the audience into believing the 2 are not going to be together, the greater the effect of the resolution when they finally meet up and “live happily ever after”.

Having said that, I believe this might just apply to any genre be it rom-com, horror, murder/mystery, action… The tougher the struggles the protagonist have to go through, the more satisfaction the viewer gets at the end of the film when everything is resolved. Using songwriting as an example, most pop music today would resolve on a particular chord in a chord progression to cue listeners that it is the end of the song or a verse/chorus. It is that resolution that does not leave the listeners hanging, hence giving that “hook” effect that is stuck in your head. And this songwriting technique is employed in most popular genres, especially in pop songs today.